Video Games You Probably Didn’t Know Were Created By Shigeru Miyamoto [MUO Gaming]

When most people think about video games, they think about Nintendo. When they think about Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the first people they think of. He is the genius behind some of Nintendo’s most beloved characters like Mario, Zelda, Link, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Fox, and the list simply goes on and on. While he might not be the godfather of video games in general, he is most certainly one of the most important figures in the history of the video game world.

While Shigeru Miyamoto made some awesome games that we all know and love, he also had some more obscure games on his resume. Some of these odd games are good, and some are less than stellar, but each and every one of them is an important part of the legacy of one of the greatest designers in the history of video games.

If you really want to understand what makes the great Shigeru Miyamoto tick, you need to look at all of his games, even the less popular ones.

Devil World

Shigeru Miyamoto made an NES game about the devil? Well sort of. It’s a game about the devil, but it’s just not evil in the way you might think when you hear there is a game about the devil. Nonetheless, this game never saw a United States release, as Nintendo did not think it will do well in the US.

It’s not a great game, so we didn’t really miss much in the United States. Still, I am jealous that everyone in Europe and Japan got this game easily.

Why didn’t Nintendo release the game in the US? It could be because the of the incredible amount of religious undertones. The game is a PacMan clone where a little dragon gathers crosses and bibles while avoiding attacking co-devils and other bad guys. It’s an incredibly weird game, and one of Shigeru Miyamoto’s first on the NES/Family Computer.

Mother

One of the rarest, most valuable games on the Super Nintendo is a little RPG called Earthbound. Well, the Earthbound saga actually begins with a game produced by Shigeru Miyamoto called Mother. This one of the few games Shigeru Miyamoto worked on that was only released in Japan. The game was scheduled to be released in the US as Earth Bound, but it never came to be.

Eventually, Mother 2 was made, and that is the game that we in the US know as Earth Bound on the SNES. Shigeru Miyamoto did not work on Mother 2, but his role in the original was incredibly important.

This is one of the first RPGs to use a modern (1980’s at the time) setting. It featured real-world items like baseball bats instead of swords, and it certainly broke the mold in terms of what gamers expected from a RPG. Have a look at Remote RPGs review of Mother to see it in action.

1080° Snowboarding

This is not an unknown game at all. In fact, it’s one of the more popular N64 games. What is not so known about it is that Shigeru Miyamoto was the producer of the game. He put aside the whimsical world of Mario and Zelda and focused his efforts on creating a snowboarding game. Seems random, but it’s the truth.

According to Game Rankings, 1080° Snowboarding has an average review score of 90%. That’s really high, and it’s clear that the influence of Shigeru Miyamoto helped make this game a snowboarding game worth playing.

Conclusion

While the great Shigeru Miyamoto may be known for some of Nintendo’s most famous mascots, he did plenty of other work as well. These are just some of the games that he worked on that people don’t think of him for. He also worked on Popeye in the arcade, F-Zero, Excitebike, and a less than beloved Nintendo 3DS game called Steel Diver. Almost every game he touched is at least good, and most are truly outstanding.

There is a reason he is one of the most important figures in video game history, and that is the fact that he is a visionary, and a true talent. Do you agree?